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Rayonic writes "US publisher Take-Two Interactive went on a pre-Christmas trademark registration spree, the products of which point us tantalisingly towards the likely name of the next installment of the massive Grand Theft Auto series." Of course it won't actually be out for many many many moons, but expect much speculation on this one. I s'pose great game sequels deserve it.

"The title of the next GTA game has been the subject of fevered speculation for months; earlier this week a listing on UK online retailer Amazon.co.uk suggested GTA 4: Sin City, but this has subsequently been found to be incorrect."

a listing on UK online retailer Amazon.co.uk suggested GTA 4: Sin City, but this has subsequently been found to be incorrect.

I, for one, am glad they were intelligent enough not to follow-up GTA: Flat-boring-city-with-two-long-roads with GTA: Flat-boring-city-with-one-long-road. Don't get me wrong, Vice City was a great game, but its map was severely lacking compared to the GTA3 map. I think perhaps Rockstar realized this, however, as GTA:San Andreas seems to present more opportunity for a dynamic, inter

How can you say that? Vice City is massive compared to Liberty City (Original). You can get lost for long periods of time in Vice City. The only way to truly appreciate the size of the map is to fly over it in a helicoptor, which Vice City allows to to do, along with just about anything else you could want to do.

Hear hear! I loved the additions and updates that Vice City brought, but the city grew so boring after a while that I had difficulty finishing it.

After that I went back to GTA3, and I found it so much more fun than VC simply because of the hills. Funny how those rolling-down-hills-on-fire-but-I-can't-freaking-ge t-out moments in GTA3 that made me want the ability to jump out of a car so badly never showed up in VC very much... because there aren't any hills to roll down!

I think the fun of the game would be gone in GTA: Baghdad seeing as average citizens would be armed to the teeth, which would make it a bit of a slanted contest when trying to beat an extra $50 out of a passer by.

I think the fun of the game would be gone in GTA: Baghdad seeing as average citizens would be armed to the teeth, which would make it a bit of a slanted contest when trying to beat an extra $50 out of a passer by.

During gameplay in GTA III on the PS2, press R2, R1, Triangle, X, L2, L1, Up, and Down during gameplay. This is a cheat code that puts guns in the hands of all pedestrians in the game. Some will shoot you if you steal their car.

Best thing is, they don't just get pistols, they get EVERYTHING, randomly...including flamethrowers and rocket launchers. Fire a gun into a crowded street corner and watch the mayhem...;-D

For more fun, after you arm your pedestrians, enter Down, Up, Left, Up, X, R1, R2, L2, L1 and watch them riot as they all start attacking each other. Or enter Down, Up, Left, Up, X, R1, R2, L1, L2 and see how long you can survive with hordes of heavily armed pedestrians all trying their best to kill you.

Or better yet, GTA: Canada.
Why even bother waiting for Bush to invade? We can kill the entire moose-loving population before our forces even cross the border! Remember: The US is at war with Canada. The US has always been at war with Canada.

As if Bush would invade Canada, they're all pro-abortion pro-gun-control, pro-public-health Demcorat weenies!

He'd have to let them vote one day!

(actually this is almost exactly the argument British diplomats used on Southern Senators in the late 1860's to persuade them to block moves to seize canada - "Do you really want millions mroe northeners in the union?")

Why even bother waiting for Bush to invade? We can kill the entire moose-loving population before our forces even cross the border! Remember: The US is at war with Canada. The US has always been at war with Canada.

Invade Canada? He'd have to FIND Canada first. As far as I know he has never crossed the border, after 3 years of being president. Some neighbour...

That's what I'd like to see as well- the star system could go a lot higher, with much more devastating counter attacks- killing a soldier would bring in helicopters and trucks full of more soldiers, and then taking some of those out would have the area get shelled. There could be more of a strategic bent to those encounters (instead of the police simply forgetting about you the next day as in GTA3): The more invaders you kill, and the more violent their response (killing lots of innocent locals), the more people will support you and resist the invaders- but of course there's dozens of other insurgent groups to work for or fight against, as well as local gangs, corrupt police, and international terrorists, and some interaction with journalists.

Soon you'll attract a lot of attention and be on the news, wanted posters on the walls (to be replace by murals celebrating you near the end).

In the opening portion of the game the city would be wide open for travel, but then after some successful missions the invaders will really crack down and roadblock everything, and then after some more successes you'll have made parts of the city too dangerous for the invaders- and then you'll push them out entirely, and win.

It wouldn't actually have to be set in Baghdad, but in an alternate universe with Russia invading the U.S. or more imaginary settings to make the game more marketable- but the parallels would be obvious.

Day of the Dead. In that movie, the US government has abandoned hope of executing the zombie hordes via the typical bullet-to-head method. They keep getting overrun in combat with the millions of zombies. So they started experimenting with training the zombies to kill other zombies. Much like how the hutus hunted down the tutsis in your Africa scenario. Mass genocide via hundreds of thousands of participants.

The same minority they exploit with all their other titles: geeks that don't have a life, and are therefore forced to spend $49.95 on software to try to spice up their otherwise boring, meaningless existence....

Blowing up the wrong buildings could seriously screw with missions, and actually would be an easy way to cheat. Don't want cops? Blow up the stations!

Though, technically, the reason you won't see deformable terrain in GTA is because the series is PS2-centric, and the PS2 doesn't have a hard drive (yet) to store the city data in addition to the 500K of game data. Because what good is deformable terrain if all you have to do is drive around the block, and the building's back?

More freedom in crimes that I can commit. For instance, I would like to be able to enter domestic residences and perform a home invasion. Couple this with the ability to take hostages, loading stolen goods into vans, and selling stolen goods to pawn shops and I'll be a happy home invader.

I want a slow mo instant replay. I want xbox live multiplayer. I don't have the live service but if I knew most of the other cars in town were being driven by humans, it would be much more interesting.

Easier aiming with the gun. Holding the left trigger for half a second before firing results in randomly shooting pedestrians while cops are shooting me in the head from a couple feet away.

Maybe a second screen or status window achieved by using a crossover cable to my laptop, offering a dhcp server and a we

1. Cars and people that don't flat out disappear when they leave my field of view.

2. Intelligent enemies that don't cheat, and that can figure out stairs / ramps / etc.

3. Newspapers that don't blow around the street and under a building through a crack in the polygon structure.

4. Allies that aren't just sitting ducks.

5. More vehicles. Real ones.

6. A system for vehicle generation that doesn't suck ass (get in a truck, drive around, pretty soon 90% of the cars out are trucks).

7. The ability to aim with ANY weapon.

8. You know that guy who just runs in a corner endlessly? Get rid of him and all his clones.

9. Missions that take thought, and aren't just impossibly difficult or arcane. (Messin' with the Man, anyone? I could get 5 stars and not fill the gauge. I finally passed when somebody told me to 'just shoot a car until it blows up, and keep shooting at the twisted wreckage').

The best part is that its got such a cool narrative and storyboard, and the way it takes you through it is awesome.

You wouldn't believe it, but an Interactive Fiction & Media class [gatech.edu] that I'm taking this semester taught by this guy [cmu.edu] actually requires us to play GTA3 and analyze the gameplay!:) Go see the course site!

And its kinda fun seeing why it really succeded - the whole story sometimes follows what seems to a post-modernist approach to storytelling, and its a great mix of both narrative and game-theory approach with a non-singular series of puzzles. And believe it or not, its success has really changed the way acadmic people look at gaming and at simulation and storytelling.

I wish i could get credit for playing video games at school. Your parents money hard at work!

Well, I don't see anything wrong in having to play video games to learn how AI in the field really works! In fact, I think its a good idea to let people go out in the field and see what the state of things really are, what other better way to teach?

And interactive media does necessiate knowing the various kinds of methods that things can be done in, and how they work. I do not see anything wrong with it, really.

And oh, I support myself fully through research scholarships, so its not really my parents' hard earned money - its my money:-)

Living just a few minutes from Camden, NJ, I had to laugh at this. Madd props.

But, Camden's too small, really. What are you gonna do? Buy/sell the drugs for/to the surburban white kids from West Deptford, Wenonah, and Cherry Hill? Go knock over Village Thrift? Always end up at Our Lady of Lords Hospital when you die? Go knock over a concert at the Tweeter Center before it closes up at 11 PM? Burn down half the city on Mischief Night?

Population of San Andreas = 2115
Copies of GTA sold since October = 8.5 million
Number of pedestrians killed per gamer = ~250
Assuming the same number of people buy the sequel, that computes to each San Andreas citizen being blown up, decapitated, and mutilated roughly 10047281.32 times. Imagine the anti-violence propaganda...:)

I'm pretty sure that GTA "San Andreas" is a much more fictional place than your San Andreas. What kind of GTA game could you possible have in a village of 2000? Every mission is going to be a beer run.

Lets face it - the roads in Vice City were just too damn flat, Hopefully they'll be taking some cues from San Francisco and providing us with lots of nice hills to let us relive the chases from Bullit.

Plus it'd be particularly satisfying for me to take out some aggro on those 3 wheeled DPT parking patrol vehicles.

Problem I had with GTA 3 was that it followed too religiously some pointers from San Fran... flat intersection between downhill spurts of street.

This may come as a shock to you, but San Francisco isn't the only major urban city built on hills.

GTA 3 was modelled on New York, not San Francisco. When you first begin the game, the area you are in resembles the Bronx. The terrain there is quite elevated. There are MANY buildings where the front entrence could be on the sixth floor, and the rear entrence on t

but just in case I was wrong, I got gta-sc.com too;)
Interesting to note: Just a few days ago, Amazon began pre-selling "GTA4: Sin City", but later changed the name to "GTA: The next episode"Forum Topic [gta-sa.com]
Amazon
Link [amazon.co.uk]

I think the mods should have another look at that post and reconsider the troll mod. Vice City was about to fade into the night before they gave it a whole new firestorm of media attention. This story about San Andreas probably would not have been so Slashdot worthy if not for the all the complaining about Vice City.

i mean San Andreas is the third city from the original GTA. which started you off in Liberty City, moved you on to San Andreas finishing you off in Vice City. It makes perfect sense for them to re-create San Andreas. why this move is a surprise to anyone who considers themselves a "GTA Fan" I don't know. I suppose it has to do with a lot of "GTA Fans" not realizing there were two complete (and excelent imo) games before GTA 3.

If anyone remembers the original GTA, or maybe it was GTA 2, the three cities were IIRC Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas. Sin City didn't fit in, as Vegas is a bit too inland for the game (no boats, not that they were that great), but casino missions would be cool. Attention Rockstar Games, GTA 6 should be in Vegas, a casino enforcer type on the strip.

There comes a point in time when, after you finish the game, driving around killing cops for 3 hours becomes a little boring. I think the next iteration of Grand Theft Auto could really make use of some sort of random mission generator. The missions could be assassination missions, delivery missions, gang war related missions, etc, but randomizing vehicles, locations, times, gangs, etc.Also, more variety of vehicles (both drivable and non-drivable) would be cool. Some I'd like to see: air boat, jet ski, regular air plane, jumbo jet, cruise ship, horse!, hot air balloon:)

Of course there are some features that a lot of people want that I would like as well: more indoor areas, the ability to swim, more cars, weapons, more everything. What I'd really like, though, is a more immersive environment. How about news choppers following high speed chases and live news reports on the radio. Deeper storylines with more action among the NPCs.

My biggest complaint is that the game is quite boring after you actually finish it. It's as if all of a sudden the world just shuts down. Maybe for a random mission generator, you could go to your friends (the ones that are still alive, of course) at the restaraunt, club, bar, whatever and do small jobs for them. Anything to keep the action going.

That being said, even if it's just more of the same (i.e. new map, new missions, a few new vehicles and weapons) it will still be very fun for a few days.

There are random missions generated. Taxis, Police vehicles, Fire engines, and Ambulance missions are all continually generated. Now I'll be the first one to admit that they get pretty old and by the time you've managed to do enough to get the secrets from them (especially the ambulance... still haven't gotten that yet) you probably don't want to do any more, but at least give them a bit of credit for it. Any other form of randomly generated mission would likely be just as boring in the same amount of time.

I've thought that a great sequel to GTA would be where you play from the cops' perspective. You could start as a rookie out of the academy, and they'd stick you with a partner and you'd have a beat.

At first it'd be just simple stuff like traffic violations, and work up to more serious stuff like robberies, gang fights, murders, etc. Maybe your partner could be just a tinge on the bad cop side, and you'd get to choose whether to play it by the book or bend the rules.

It would be sort of like the way "Knights of the Old Republic" does it with Light/Dark Points. If you accept a bribe to let a speeder off, you'd get a "bad cop" point for instance.

There could be several paths for your character. The good cop path might lead to you becoming police commisioner, and the bad cop one might lead to being a drug lord or mafioso type.

I Live in San Andreas [sanandreas.info], and it takes me only 20 minutes to WALK from one end of town to the other! Man this is gonna be some tight game.

Lets see, what sort of stuff would a gangsta find in ol San An'..., 10 curches, 2 bars, one of which is the VFW post (no. 2600, nice number though), 4 small banks, high school, elementry, defunct cement plant, historic courthouse/jail (former jail of the goldrush stage robber Black Bart), um government center, hospital, DMV, CHP (hmm maybe has some possibilities), Forestry, sherrif (unincorporated city), government center, one 24 hour mini mart, the other four are only open till about 9 or so. Lots of back streets, though not the cow-path roads like Jackson and Angels Camp...also a good place for a side trip to jump frogs [frogtown.org]

Oh, it is in "Calaveras County" [historichwy49.com] (Calaveras, spanish for skull, rumoured to be named after the discovery of a riverbed with skulls from some ancient native skirmish). And a former spanish mining camp (that's how San Andreas got it's name from Saint Andrew).

No stop lights... many streets with no sidewalks!..and bunches of old gold mine shafts and tunnels all over the place,

Yup, you're probably right. After all, since the other two cities in the GTA games, Liberty City and Vice City were based on large, prominent cities (NY, Miami), it stands to reason that the 3rd is going to be based on some tiny town.

Screw deathmatches with GTA. I want several interconnected cities with upwards of 10k players on at one time.

Gangs of players, with lower level players being sent on missions by higher level players. Players as cops, SWAT, soldiers, even undercover cops posing as gang members, trying to keep law and order. Individual players happy to set up a gun store and avoid paying protection to the many gangs in town. Massive gang wars, with the cops calling in the National Guard. Riots with buildings burning and collapsing. One gang taking over an entire city and declaring war on another city. Thousands of helpless AI citizens cowering in doorways and running from gun battles. Even AI armed citizens attempting to protect their homes. Destroyable buildings that slowly get rebuilt and re-destroyed by AI construction workers.

Limit the available weapons to pistols, Uzis, shotguns, the occasional M-16/AK-47. Very high level gang members can get rocket launchers, but using one will bring down the law HARD. Low level cops get pistols, shotguns and patrol cars. Higher level cops can either go SWAT or join the Army and get APCs and Tanks.

Gang Members get points/money/skills for completing missions, causing chaos, generally doing criminal things (mugging people, pimping AI prostitutes, running protection rackets). Cops get points/money/skills for upholding the peace, protecting the lives of innocent citizens, stopping/eliminating gang members, busting up gangs, etc (but probably more points for equivalent jobs than criminals because in order to encourage players to be good guys).

Considering the recent ice storm in Portland, I think steep hills and icy roads would really add to the GTA experience. Would also pretty much beg the introduction of bicycles and skateboards to the game.

I want some cutting edge games. For example, how about a game where your goal is to kill JFK? You could have different vantage points, the Book Depository, the Grassy Knoll, the Triple Overpass and you could use a special code to give you the much vaunted "magic bullet cheat".And what about porno games? I want a game where the object is to fuck and suck as many women as I can, with extremely detailed graphics. I'm tired of killin' and maimin', I want to do some fuckin' and suckin'. I mean GTA does allow you

Sounds like you're thinking about Postal 2. On the gang wars tip, it would be nice if gang members didn't identify you instantly. You're in a different car, just cruising along, how do they know it's you when they couldn't possibly have seen your face? That annoyed the piss out of me. It got to the point where I couldn't drive anywhere in anything without it getting shot to shit.

Bah. The only problem gang in GTA3 is the Mafia in St. Marks in Portland. The other ones might be a problem if you're on foot, but in a vehicle, no sweat. The Mafia's shotguns will shred your vehicle in nothing flat, but that's why you've got the Bulletproof Patriot from "Marked Man", right? RIGHT?

Some things I would like to see (in addition to what's already been said):

- This isn't a gameplay item, but I would love more stations and longer music loops. The music loops would be dependent on what point in the game you were, so when you were 80% of the way through the game you'd still hear more new music.

- Some side missions (like the Love Fist missions) that are humorous.

- Multiple endings based on divergent points in the game - the choice you make affects the ending you get.

What's next after SA? Well, obviously, they come up with new places. That's kinda what they had to do originally.:)

Hopefully, the game gets more of a makeover in the gameplay department. Vice City wasn't much different, but Vice City wasn't a sequel either. VC and SA are just "side-sequels" to GTA3. Glorified expansion packs. This is especially obvious given that the game after SA will be called Grand Theft Auto 4 (according to Rockstar themselves).